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HSC 2013 MX2 Marathon (archive) (5 Viewers)

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seanieg89

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

Also, more interestingly, the condition is equivalent to the three points forming an equilateral triangle. (If and only if).
 

cutemouse

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

I think an 'elegant' approach to this is setting one of the points to 0, finding a condition and then using a change of coordinates.
 

Carrotsticks

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

I think an 'elegant' approach to this is setting one of the points to 0, finding a condition and then using a change of coordinates.
That is the fastest method that I know of at the moment, though there are most likely faster ones. A typical 'school test proof' would be to actually draw out arbitrary vectors z_1, z_2 and z_3 then work with the condition, though this causes problems because it only proves one direction of the statement.

w.l.o.g you can shift one of the points z_1, z_2 or z_3 to the origin, then solve the quadratic. Upon doing so, you should immediately acquire that the other two are plus/minus cis(pi/3) away whilst preserving modulus. Since the solving of the quadratic works both ways, you have consequently proved both directions of the 'iff' statement.
 

seanieg89

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

That is the fastest method that I know of at the moment, though there are most likely faster ones. A typical 'school test proof' would be to actually draw out arbitrary vectors z_1, z_2 and z_3 then work with the condition, though this causes problems because it only proves one direction of the statement.

w.l.o.g you can shift one of the points z_1, z_2 or z_3 to the origin, then solve the quadratic. Upon doing so, you should immediately acquire that the other two are plus/minus cis(pi/3) away whilst preserving modulus. Since the solving of the quadratic works both ways, you have consequently proved both directions of the 'iff' statement.


That used to be my fastest method. I just thought of something arguably faster though.

Let a=z1-z2, b=z2-z3, c=z3-z1. Observe that a+b+c=0 always.

The equation given is equivalent to a^2+b^2+c^2=0. But since a+b+c is also zero, this is equivalent to the fact that the monic polynomial with roots a,b,c must have zero coefficients for z and z^2. This is equivalent to a,b and c having the same modulus. This is equivalent to the triangle with vertices z1,z2,z3 being equilateral.
 

seanieg89

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

They are roughly equal in length probably.
 

Sy123

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

Well that was an excellent question.

Solution


I feel like my solution is unnecessarily long however.
 

Sy123

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

Ah my second question was not built nicely. Sorry about that. (Was supposed to lead on from part i)
It should of been.


Will think of another question soon.
 

Sy123

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

You are given:










(So basically prove that expression is divisible by 3)
 
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RealiseNothing

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

You are given:










(So basically prove that expression is divisible by 3)
I'm going to skip the "prove true for n=0" bits as they are just trivial really.

Well we can assume:



Now we want to prove that:



By substituting in our assumption:



Now we are given that:



Hence:



Substituting this in gives us:





But we were given:



By substituting this in:







where

Therefore it is divisible by 3 for all blah blah, etc.
 
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Sy123

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

I'm going to skip the "prove true for n=0" bits as they are just trivial really.

Well we can assume:



Now we want to prove that:



By substituting in our assumption:



Now we are given that:



Hence:



Substituting this in gives us:





But we were given:



By substituting this in:







where

Therefore it is divisible by 3 for all blah blah, etc.
Nice work. I will post another question if I can think of one (unless someone else can post one?)
 

RealiseNothing

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

Nice work. I will post another question if I can think of one (unless someone else can post one?)
I would post one, but I'm saving them for the little complex numbers quiz I'm writing lol.
 

Sy123

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Re: HSC 2013 4U Marathon

I would post one, but I'm saving them for the little complex numbers quiz I'm writing lol.
Alright haha. Ill post another one tomorrow (I will try to make it a Complex Numbers/Polynomials one)
 
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